In Pictures: 8 Cars of the Future

Why? This electric car that runs on Lithium Ion batteries can travel for 80 miles. It is a ridiculously tiny looking car but is known to seat three people. It was first debuted in 2008.

Producer: John Bakker, a Dutch entrepreneur working with Spark design engineering.

Price: Comparable to that of a luxury sedan.

Benefit to the environment: How cool is this land/air gyrocopter? Sure it needs at 500 foot runway to take off, but it also doubles over as a three wheeled car. The PAL-V has excellent fuel economy (70 miles per gallon). Check out this car of the future here: http://itlounge.eu/pal-v-one-flying-car-takes-to-the-skies/

Producer: General Motors

Price: Average Manufacturer's suggested retail price of more than $40,000

Details: The Chevy Volt hybrid carries a lithium-ion battery with an all-electric driving range of 40 miles. Typically, these lithium-ion batteries are powered by hydrogen.

Estimated year of release: 2015

Producer: BMW

Price: Over $80,000

Benefit to the environment: The Spyder will be equipped with a 1.5-liter 3-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine and should be able to deliver up to 220-horsepower to the rear wheels, while the front axle is powered by a 129-horsepower electric motor.

Estimated year of release: 2015

Producer: Renault

Details: Swapping the lithium ion battery pack the Renault Fluence is powered by, should take no more than five minutes.

Estimated year of release: 2015

Producer: Vitaly Kononov, Russian designer

Benefit to the environment: We don’t know just how practical this concept car is, but we are rather intrigued by the LED screen on the inside of the car and the fact that this car is controlled by a joy stick and not a steering wheel.

Benefit to the environment: This round-shaped car generates energy from the sunlight by expanding its solar panel surface (talk about X-men handy) when parked up to the sky.

Producer:Mazda

Benefit to the environment: This electric car is especially deigned to compete the E1 races. The Mazda KAAN will reach 250 mph using a patented electronic tire system which uses a sub-level electro conductive polymer that powers the electric cars.